raising breastmilks calorie content?

[shoes]

I have a 17 day old in the hospital. She has been there since she was 3 days old and thanks to the hospital's incompetence, she will now be there for 6 more weeks. Due to a heart condition she has they say she needs more calories, but restricted fluid intake so they want to give her formula mixed with my breastmilk. Is there anyway I can increase my breastmilk's calorie content so we dont have to do that?

[miche28]

I'm very sorry to hear you're going through - hoping your stay is as short as it can be!

I guess my first question is why do they think that BM has fewer calories ounce per ounce? That's just not true -

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/mi...kcalories.html

Mixing your BM with formula only serves to make your BM less useful - the additives in formula inhibit the natural absorption of iron in BM and the formula itself damages the gut (of course, any BM is better than none).

Now, it may well be that your DD does need more concentrated calories - as I understand it (and someone more knowledgable will surely jump in), the way this is usually done is using human milk fortifier - but you could also try "double-fatting" using your own milk.

This involves skimming the fattier milk that rises to the top and using only that to feed - you can freeze the rest of the milk for later. Another way to do this is to pump off a couple ounces (depends how much you're making) and then take only that hind milk to feed (again freeze the first milk for later).

I'd suggest you get in touch with a good LC - if you're not happy with the one in the hospital, keep trying (even if you have to bring one in). It will make a world of difference.

Good luck!

[Amris]

You can also "skim" your milk:

Let it sit for a few hours in the fridge. A thin layer of cream will rise to the top. Take something and try to capture this layer, and separate it from the more "watery" milk below it. Take this and add it to some freshly pumped milk and warm it all. The cream will reintegrate to the milk, and you will have a denser, creamier milk.

This will increase the calories of the milk, and decrease the fluid of it.

You'll have to double your output, though, in order to do it. I recommend adding some cod liver oil to your diet to make sure that you don't deplete yourself.

That will also increase the vitamin A content, which helps with healing.

[shoes]

you guys are brilliant! I'm going to start doing that tonight and start pumping every 90 mins until I've got a good suppy to keep doing that. The LC said we can then test my milk to find out calorie content and then all those doctors can take their formula and shove it!